I had to format an OWC branded external drive

[freeradical]

I got a new drive, and it came with formatting software on it, so I formatted the drive.

This is kind of odd. I've never had to do this with any of their drives before. At least I can't recall having to format the drive, and if i did, I used disc utility to do it.

[space-time]

Formatting software was ON the drive? So apparently you were able to read it? Did you try Disk Utility?

[freeradical]

There was some OWC setup utility that I used.

I did not try disc utility.

There was also some bundled software on the drive that's gone now.

[Buzz]

It's usually good form to format any new drive in the environment in which it will be used; internal or external, and when being swapped from one to the other for redeployment.
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[OWC Larry]

All of our drives now ship with a real slick utility that is not proprietary - that uses built in OS formatting commands - to make initial initialization(including partitioning options) quick and painless. I believe it is supposed to also move the freebie software bundle to the initialized drive volume as part of the process.

We still have a lot of customers that have PowerPC Macs as well as Intel Macs. For boot support, Apple requires a different schema for the PPC vs. the Intel Macs - and this takes care of that selection based on the system connected to.

We also have some customers, that for various reasons, want a Windows supported initialization - which this also supports.

it's not proprietary in anyway in terms of the resulting initialized volume(s). You can always use disk utility as well at any time. By using OS standard commands, it is 100% compatible with any future update, etc with same scenario as if formatted with the Disk Utility app, etc.

Also - we are making additional updates to our utility to reduce the number of clicks to do the standard/default 'best recommended' setup which is basically one partition of the correct schema - but still leaving the options too as noted.

honestly- we need to cover our own software app better. it's a nice utility for initial setup, and will refer to an outside review for more info here...
http://macperformanceguide.com/OWC-DriveGuide.html

[sekker]

Nice!

[freeradical]

I saw the OS9 stuff, and I was quite surprised!

[m.paris]

I recently bought an OWC drive with this formatting utility on it. I used it and I must say that it was a very slick system. Thanks OWC.

[silvarios]

Seems pretty neat. I never knew about this app, so thanks for this post bringing it to my attention.

[M A V I C]

OWC Larry wrote: it is 100% compatible with any future update

Don't tempt Apple.